Voice of the Free Press: Follow strong words with powerful action

Jan. 24, 2013

Burlington Schools Superintendent Jeanne Collins answered the potent charges of racism at Burlington High School with equally strong words.

"I have heard the criticisms. I take them to heart."

"To those of you who believe action has taken too long ... I am sorry."

"I intend to listen and act."

Collins must follow through on those words with equally powerful action.

"In the coming days," she promises "a series of aggressive actions to attack disparities."

The superintendent's letter to the community, published Tuesday in the Free Press, is an extraordinary mea culpa that rises to a level rarely seen from a public official. In the strongest terms possible, Collins takes responsibility for the problems in the schools and commits to finding solutions.

Collins' statement ends for the district the question of whether a problem exists. The community has placed considerable pressure on her to respond with meaningful action. What Burlington needs now are details of, and deadlines for, change.

The challenge is starkly simple, the real-life remedy distressingly difficult -- difficult because the real answer lies in changing the way people think. But change must happen so students no longer feel marginalized within their own school because of their race.

A group of Burlington High School students, many of them immigrants from African countries, have said those who subject them to slurs in the hallways go unpunished, they are pigeonholed into classes for English learners and they are discouraged from taking higher-level courses.

The students organized a protest at the school and spoke before the School Board, the news media and the Legislature. What the students are asking for is that they be judged by more than how they look or how they score on a standardized test -- by their classmates, their teachers and their community.

Critics of the schools' response have a reason for feeling the school district and Collins have had plenty of time to do something about the problem yet have failed to show meaningful progress. Collins has worked in the school district for more than a decade, and has been superintendent since 2006. In 2007, she met with a group of parents who complained of racism in the schools and demanded the district step up efforts to hire African-American teachers.

(Page 2 of 2)

In response to calls from some community members that Collins resign for the district's handling of the racism charges, the superintendent says she is staying. With that promise, Collins assumes the responsibility for addressing the charges.

Responsibility for facing this problem rests with more than Superintendent Collins alone. The members of the School Board are ultimately accountable. The charges of racism are a nightmare for any school board. Yet successive boards have permitted this issue to fester year after year and reach a level where it has become the center of a heated argument.

The School Board does deserve credit for authorizing, in 2010, a task force to deliver recommendations for a strategic plan for diversity, equity and inclusion in the school district. The report, delivered in October 2011, has helped raise the profile of issues surrounding race in the schools within the community.

The current conflict was fueled by the superintendent's response in March to a controversy stirred by the task force report.

This is how Collins responded this week: "My pledge is this -- to do everything humanly possible to eliminate disparities and inequities in our schools." These are the words the superintendent must live up to.